Well, it is a joke and, as @talljasperman pointed out, a play on the Chinese proverb, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

It literally means that if you provide a man with a fire, it will keep him warm till it burns out, but if you set him on fire, he will be warm (too much so) for the rest of a very short life before the fire consumes him.

Actually…..it means…..that if you build a fire a man will be warm for a day….but if an idea, or a passion or something greater-larger-tremendous sets a man on fire….he will carry this fire in his soul to warm him for the rest of his life.

(Or her life…women like fire, too.) :)

I honestly think that he probably read it on a fortune cookie….don’t let this get to you.

I know how painful it is for you…but I don’t think there are hidden meanings….

Unless he is totally dense…in which case, he read this…thinking that “fire” meant something totally different and rude.

@sillymichelleyoung You can “hide” people from your Facebook feed. When you see his status notification, take your mouse over it, towards the top right corner of the status message. A “hide” button will appear that you can use to not see his things on your feed. He will not know you have him hidden, and you can unhide him later from your settings.

It means when you do something FOR someone, the result is very temporary. But when you help them to do it by themselves, that stays with them forever. Example feed the poor, or help the poor learn to garden.